Desert Weathering

Hi there. Im now finishing off two Rhinos for my space marine army (checkout my log for pics, see my sig.) and im thinking there too bright and they could do with some weathering on them. I paint the bases of my infantry snakebite leather, 50:50 snake bite and bleached bone drybrush, then i final dry brush of beached bone.

What would you suggest? paint this on the side of the tank? If anyones got pictures of there desert weathered models that would be great.

For starters, I would do a photo search on Google for American Armour in Iraq, and other desert nations. Isreali, Jordanian and Egyptian armour would also be excellent searches for ideas on desert weathering. Having worked in sandy/desert enviroments, I noted that there was not so much mud (no rain!), but a light dusting over everything, and I mean everything and the edges of some harder used equipment was always worn to the metal, and nice and shiny, as the sand acts as a constant scouring agent.

An old russian tank this, you can see that the sand has sanded off the paint, causing rust. On the sides of the tank you can see furter damage caused by the wind, giving the entire tank patches of rust red and damaged paint would therefor be an idea.

Case2, modern tank:
this abrams obviously also has desert yellow camo, and (i read this while researching) the desert faring abrams also has special are intake and filters against the sand

Hi there. Im now finishing off two Rhinos for my space marine army (checkout my log for pics, see my sig.) and im thinking there too bright and they could do with some weathering on them. What would you suggest? paint this on the side of the tank? If anyones got pictures of there desert weathered models that would be great. Dan

Brother Dan. Weathering is something that very few folks get right. Either their vehicles look as if they've just driven out of the forecourt of "Rhinos r Us" or have driven through a deep and sticky bog. In fact, most vehicles never look anything like either of these extremes.

The main point to bear in mind is that vehicles in intense sun will bleach very quickly so any reds should be bleached to a soft reddish pink. Tracks should be painted with silver since they are polished by sand and dust, unlike in temperate climates where they should be a dull pale brown.

Another thing to remember is that much of the weathering is caused by dust and not mud spalshed up onto vertical surfaces and that this should be particularly obvious on horizontal or sloping surfaces where there are ridges. The main way to paint this is to do several very fine coats of drybrush (when you start you should hardly be able to see what you've done and the effect should only become obvious as you start to build up the the layers - if you try and do it quickly with a couple of thick drybrushes it just won't work. Think about where dust might gather and concentrate on these areas. Any metal that has regular contact with sand and dust/grit will be highly polished and any rubber will be a clear blackish grey. Don't worry about rust too much because you don't get much rust at all on vehicles that are being used regularly.

The main thing is to take your time. A good start to lightening the whole vehicle colour would be to give it a few thin washes of the colour you want to use as your main weathering effect. That should dull and lighten the main blocks of colour and will also give a good indication of where dust would build up - if the wash runs into the cracks then that's where the dust'll go too!

The main thing is not to rush but to take your time and enjoy the way that the weathering takes shape - you'll know yourself when you've done enough. Good luck - a well-weathered vehicle is an unusual sight and a joy to behold!